Posts tagged ‘MARN’

Back in July, I received a blank Little Free Library to paint. What the hell’s a Little Free Library? This is. (Here’s another article, too.) I think I was approached by my pals at MARN to take a crack at customizing one, but it seems more likely that I bothered them until they gave me one. I mean, I love books. I also love libraries. And if there’s no chance of me painting a giant library anytime soon, I’ll settle for one that’s much, much smaller.

When it showed up to the workshop, it looked like this:

So I did the only reasonable thing I could think of— paint it orange:

Anyone who’s seen me do live art in the last three years can pretty much guess step #2: paint the non-orange parts the other standard dwellephant color— cream. (Not to be confused with this kind of cream.):

Just like a giant library, every Little Free Library has a roof. Which I also promptly painted orange:

To misquote Mick Jagger, “I see a white door / and I want to paint it orange:”

As someone who’s spent his entire life committed to drawing faces on things that don’t have faces, this should come as a surprise to absolutely no one:

The top of the roof:

That inside shelf showed up more red than orange. We nipped that problem in the bud:

Another complete surprise to absolutely no one— I drew arms all over the body of this thing:

More arms on the back:

Rear view, assembled:

3/4 view. And yes, Tyra, he’s smiling with his eyes:

Other 3/4 view. Eventually, a door will be attached to the front. It’ll have a 1.5″ frame, and a large plexi-glass window, so you can see all the great books inside:

And like every responsible artist, I signed it. But on the inside:

I’ll let all of you know when my Little Free Library is installed, and where. The fine folks installing it are also going to send me a photo or two of it in all it’s completed, planted glory.

Hope you come across it some day. Hope you find some other Little Free Libraries in your neighborhood, too.

We just finished painting & signing 20 small pieces we’re donating to MARN– the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network. These pieces will be available for the finding at their annual Treasure Hunt event. We’re not entirely sure how the process works, but at the very least we know that by the end of the event, you could go home with one of these pieces.

The tallest ones are about an inch taller than an iPhone. The medium sized ones are as tall as a Blackberry. And the smaller ones? About the size of a pager. (Hello, 1989.) Hope you dig ’em!